Every 30 Seconds: The Decision Pressure Nurses Face

Honoring Nurses Week 2025

Every May, we take a moment to celebrate the nurses who are the backbone of our healthcare system.

But their impact isn’t just something to recognize once a year – it’s felt every second of every shift.

In fact, research shows that a nurse in a critical care setting makes a clinical decision roughly every 30 seconds.

That means over 1,000 decisions in a single 12-hour shift – many made under pressure, with limited information, and without real-time tools to guide them.

This Nurses Week, I want to talk not just about what nurses do, but what they need – and how we can better support the decisions they make that drive patient safety every single day.

The Hidden Cost of Unsupported Decisions

Burnout among nurses is now a national crisis – and decision fatigue is a major, often overlooked driver.

A 2023 review by Thompson et al. found that without Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS), nurses are left to rely heavily on memory, past experience, and one-size-fits-all protocols that don’t adapt to the needs of the individual patient.

This gap leads to two outcomes:

• Variability in care that can compromise patient safety
• Emotional and cognitive strain on nurses that fuels turnover

The statistics back this up. Nurse turnover in U.S. hospitals was 18.4% in 2023, and the cost to replace a single bedside nurse now exceeds $56,000 (NSI, 2024).

That’s not just a financial concern – it’s a patient safety issue and a workforce sustainability problem.

Supporting Nurses Means Supporting Their Decisions

At Monarch, we believe that the most powerful thing we can give nurses is not more tasks – it’s trust and support.

That’s why we built EndoTool: to serve as a clinical partner for nurses, delivering insulin dosing support that adapts to their patients’ needs – and to the realities nurses face at the bedside every day.

Studies have shown that better decision support improves clinical processes – and helps nurses focus on what matters most: patient care.

A Call to Equip, Not Overwhelm

To every nurse reading this: thank you. For your insight, your skill, your advocacy, and your decisions – all made in the name of patient care.

To every health system leader: let’s not just celebrate nurses – let’s equip them. Let’s remove friction, reduce stress, and give them tools that help, not hinder.

Because if nurses are making life-changing decisions every 30 seconds, the least we can do is support them every second of the way.

Happy Nurses Week – and thank you for all you do.